Barcelona chocolate adventures, January 2026

My annual trip to visit family in Barcelona at some stage always turns into a bit of a chocolate safari.  And the trip I have just returned from is no exception.  My chocolate soul has been nourished by the people I met, the chats we had, the chocolate we sampled.  I also met in real life two people who I have only known beforehand through social media and virtual events - and it was a joy to spend time with them, as well as the three new chocolate businesses in Barcelona this trip that I met through their recommendations.

Lauren Heineck has been a guiding light for me along my long chocolate journey;  she had her own business WKND Chocolate, and realised that other chocolate makers were spread thin on the ground at the time and set up a wonderful Facebook group, Well-tempered.  This became a much loved and needed forum for small artisan makers and I always enjoyed Lauren's series of interviews that she did online with interesting folk from the small but growing-fast artisan world.  She is Barcelona based, and it was such a treat to finally meet her properly.  She is not currently working in chocolate, but obviously still interested and a good person to ask for guidance in Barcelona.

Marc Torrano is also based in Barcelona, and has many chocolate entrepreneurial and facilitator hats he actively spins.  I know him through the International Institute of Cocoa and Chocolate Tasting, and it was wonderful to meet him and hear more about his plans.  He works for IICCT, in admin as well as becoming a trainer; he also works with small chocolate businesses and helps them develop plans and products, as well as running his own tasting sessions and is planning to develop that side of things more in the future.  He kindly came into the city during a difficult transport week so that we could visit Kina together.

On one level there is a lot of chocolate in Barcelona – loads of shops selling bonbons, bars, hot chocolate, even a Museum of Chocolate, but finding makers that work themselves with cocoa and chocolate is more difficult, and I don’t think I would have found the three businesses below  without the guidance of Marc, Lauren and Nerea.

I will describe them in more detail below, but all three are small spaces, packing huge talent and creativity.  The businesses are being built from passion, skill, research, practice, ethics and belief in chocolate being more than a confection.

Danielle Pacheco

Danielle has a small and very chic space in Sarrià, where she makes her beautiful bonbons and small bars.  As I was so excited to meet her, I failed to take any photos – but as you can see from the box of bonbons – she has an elegant style, focus on flavours more than anything.  She works on her own, and I really do not know how she or the others I met, manage to get anything done – anytime a customer comes in you need to stop what you are doing – whether you be mid temper, mid moulding, mid piping ganache, and attend to them.  You need to keep the workspace clean – no easy matter – as it is on show all the time.  I take my hat off to them all.

Danielle does not make her own bean to bar chocolate, but uses couverture from two ethical sources.  I had heard of Xoco Gourmet from Nicaragua, but never had the chance to taste any – and was delighted to be able to try.  The chocolates are rich and fruity, with a lovely brightness to them.

We bought bonbons, small bars (the pistachio filled one was delicious) and a beautifully tinned box of cocoa nib clusters – a delicious treat.  I love the nuttiness of nibs, and these are a delight – of both flavour and textures.

Catcao

Danielle sent me a message suggesting I visit a new business by a friend of hers – and it was very near where we were staying.  Catcao – run by Norbert – has only been open a few months and I am so glad we were able to visit.  Again, a small but powerhouse business – Norbert has so much energy and creativity.  He is a bean to bar maker, and at the moment focussing on Kokoa Kamili beans from Tanzania.  He has a small production space, with an oven, winnower built by his father (very ingenious) and a small squadron of Premier grinders.  As a graphic designer he has created a great brand – Catcao – the Cat both short for Catalunya, as well as a cute logo.

He was so welcoming and enthusiastic and we really enjoyed trying his different chocolates – I love the 65%, 75% and 85% progression of chocolates – it is intriguing how the different levels of sugar and cocoa butter change the way the cocoa flavours play around your senses.  He also experiments with white chocolates and we tasted his vegan white with Tonka – and I so wished that I had a bar of our Sweet woodruff to share with him to compare tonka and vanilla notes.  We tried his chocolate and hazelnut spread as well – just sumptouous.  Few bean to bar makers in the UK make chocolate and hazelnut spreads – but almost all seem to in businesses I have visited in France and Spain.  As someone who has never had a Nutella-habit, I was slow to try them – but my, they are delicious.  The choice of chocolate, levels of sugar, and the oil used to keep it from setting are all really important components of the flavour and mouthfeel, and Norbert had found a wonderful sweet-spot of balance, using the Tanzania cocoa and olive oil.

Kina Chocolates

The third chocolate maker we visited was Kina – I had been introduced to their chocolate by Nerea the previous year, but had not been able to get to their shop during that visit.  This trip though, I was accompanied by Marc, and Daniel – a student currently studying in Barcelona, who comes from Costa Rica where his parents farm cocoa and vanilla.  We formed quite a crowd in Oscar’s shop/workshop/production space.  Six people work in a space not much bigger than my workshop at home.  The level of organisation and discipline to work in this space is awe inspiring – especially as they are constantly innovating and pushing boundaries in what they can do with cocoa.  And offer a continuous diary of workshops and tastings.

Oscar was the quiet, controlled, master in the centre of all this, and he juggled guiding us through his work, responding to other customers, as well as creating new products, with extraordinary calm and charm.  Two of his team were working on a macambo bar, a new creation using the white beans of Theobroma cacao’s cousin, T bicolor, and we were treated to tastes – the first just as it was being tempered, and then the second when they had on the spot decided to tweek the recipe by adding a little salt – which just took it to another level.  I loved witnessing this – so much of my own processes are carried out in this way – just challenging myself to push a flavour a little further.  And the macambo chocolate was divine – so nutty.

We tasted many of their innovations, cocoa liqueur, cocoa fruit pastilles, the macambo samples, and a really delicious caramelised cocoa bean – ooh, they are so good; whole cocoa beans, coated in a crisp caramelised sugar shell – like those crunchy, caramelised peanuts you sometimes get in winter from street vendors.  Oscar’s partner has created the branding work, which is lovely – they are able to ensure gorgeous wrappers, boxes and labels for all their products.   

Chocolate and foraging adventures in Spain and France, January 2025

We have just returned from our, now annual, trip to Barcelona to see family and recover from months of Christmas chocolate preparation and anxiety.  We travel by rail and road and as we pass through Paris, I make sure I have time for a stop at Plaq in Rue de Nil; hot chocolate, a browse through their gorgeous bars, and a moment to sit in this wonderful street and catch our breath.

I have spent some time on previous trips to Barcelona exploring its craft chocolate offers, but this trip for some reason, there did not seem to be an imperative.  The internet revealed a new-to-me business, Kina Chocolates – but it was not clear from their website if they had a shop that I could visit.  I did though chance upon the Spain office of Original Beans, and spent a very lovely hour or so chatting to their rep about their work, in particular cocoa sourcing, the current cocoa market situation and so much more; I was glad I had brought some extra bars of our chocolate with me, so that I can share what we do with wild flavours.

During our trip we took a visit to Madrid, and as well as the magnificent Prado, we sought out Kaikao – they use date sugar as their sweetener.  They have a very busy workshop and shop in central Madrid,.  A small and delightful bakery, Acid, with the best pastries I have ever tasted, further delighted me by having Puchero bars on their shelves (and apologies - I have eaten and given away all the bars I bought from them, so no photo.  They are delicious!)  

The chocolate highlight of the time away though was spending a couple of days with lovely Nerea, in Vitoria.  We really enjoyed exploring the town – with its beautiful medieval core, full of character, handsome buildings, history and some of the best small museums we have been in.  Playing cards, amber, Wellington’s tea set.  And of course Pinxos! But the highlight for me was long chats with Nerea (@nereachocolate) about chocolate, and sitting with her tasting.  So I did finally taste Kina, as well as Basque favourites Kaitxo and Lurka.

And of course, you cannot take the forager anywhere and not expect her to walk very slowly and nibble the undergrowth!  Even in Barcelona, we were ‘stalking wild asparagus’ (never thought I would actually do that! 'Stalking The Wild Asparagus' is an wonderful classic foraging book by Euell Gibbons; next I have to stalk the Blue Eyed Scallop!), and I became a little obsessive about looking for Holm or Holly Oaks to collect their acorns.  Visiting friends on France on our way home, we spent a prickly afternoon gathering juniper berries, and great fun cracking local walnuts with meat tenderising hammers!  So I have a few exotic foraged treats to enjoy on my Wildbiome diet, come April.

A perfect self-guided tour of some Barcelona chocolate and patisserie shops

In January, I made a lovely trip to Barcelona, a city I have visited many times now as we have family living there.  I am always on the look out for interesting chocolate wherever I go, and as it has been three years since my last visit (that pesky COVID) I wondered if there was any new choc on the block.  When I visited Salon du Chocolat in Paris last year, there was a stand for the Bean to Bar Chocolate Association for Spain – which was interesting and indicated that there is a rising movement of craft makers in Spain – so I was optimistic for this trip to Barcelona.

I did some searching on the internet before the trip, and I also had a look at the Bean to Bar Association website for some suggestions.  I came across a chocolate journalist on that site, Nerea Prieto de Apraiz (@nereachocolate), who is Barcelona- based – so I wrote to ask for her local advice.  She is so lovely – lots of very good advice but also an invitation to meet for coffee.  What a treat – we chatted for ages, I learned so much from her both about the scene in Spain, but also about her own work and plans, and about the sector overall.

So the guided walk; this started  where we agreed to meet for coffee – L’Atelier in Eixample district of the city – I plotted out other places of interest and realised that they were all only 10 or 15 minute walks from each other and so a day of delights mapped out before me.  Barcelona is a lovely city to walk around – you go from small residential streets to grand boulevards at the turn of a corner, there are Gaudi pavement tiles to fascinate at your feet, elegant pavement cafes to tempt you, always a copa de cava available whenever you feel the need.  It was cold in Barcelona this January, so walking and chocolate eating/buying were definitely a good combination.

1.  L’Atelier: this is where Nerea and I met – a very elegant coffee and patisserie shop, with the most eye-catching of ‘cakes’ and chocolates.  They are famous for their hot chocolate as well; weirdly for a chocolate maker, I don't really like hot chocolate (I know, how did they let me in?), but have to say this was delicious – no cornflour, not too heavy on milk – rich, warming and very chocolatey.  The patisserie are so, so elegant   I am not really qualified to judge these – just ‘Wow’ really – I am fascinated by the whole realm of patisserie but rarely have the time, patience, expertise or equipment to make these layered extravaganzas.  And very few opportunities to sample them either!  The craftsmanship in these little works of art was breathtaking - I know my photos don't do them any justice - but, for example, the cactus in the flower pot had a chocolate pot, and the cactus shell was chocolate as well - filled with layers of ganaches, cakes, mousses.T he Director of the business, Eric Ortuno was there, and he kindly showed us around the whole place – it extended on and on behind the shop – with kitchens where a busy team were creating more patisserie and deserts, and then ever onward to the back where there is a patisserie school.  Amazing.

2, Cacao Sampaka This was to be my next stop, but as I had spent so much time (and eaten so much patisserie) at L’Atelier, I skipped it (always another time) and went straight to Lot Roasters.  

3. Lot Roasters: coffee and chocolate roasters, and really the chic-est space I have ever been in; it was all stainless steel cabinets and tables, in a high ceilinged old shop – with crooked floor tiles and whitewashed walls.  Even the espresso machine is the coolest thing I have ever seen (remember I live in Kenmore – I think I am allowed to get excited about an elegant espresso machine).  The photo here does none of it justice and nor does it represent how generous Ursula was in guiding me through what they do.  She offered me coffee that tasted of cocoa beans fermenting (a smell I adore – winey, earthy, fruity), cold brew cocoa husk tea, cocoa fruit juice (so refreshing) and some very special chocolate.  It was all amazing – and I loved both their packaging, their presentation, their passion and expertise.  Really worth a visit if in Barcelona.

4.   Museum of Xocolata:  you could factor in lots of time for this museum – I have visited in the past and they now have a whole Bean to Bar section as well – so there is even more to see.  They have a great café and shop if you just want to pop in – and a lovely range of their own single origin bean to bar chocolates

5.  Hofmann Patisserie:  there was a queue outside this tiny shop, so I peeked in through the window only (and took a quick photo).  Famous (clearly – hence the queue) for exceptional patisserie (my daughter informs me that their raspberry croissant is one of the wonders of the world), the 'cakes' on display in the window were truly exceptional.  Through the window I could see that they had a chocolate section at the back of the shop - again, a return visit is needed to explore further, 

6.  Bubo: The last of my tour – again a lot of patisserie – brightly coloured and bold, contemporary designs. This was a little cheaper than the other patisserie; busy, so there was no chance to ask questions – but their chocolates looked really interesting and I think a visit early to mid afternoon would have been quieter and better to be able to ask more questions, as well as to try some of their cakes.

The last three are on the edge of the Gothic quarter and so the shops are very busy, and draw many tourists..  I think I started my tour too late (1.30pm) so if I was doing it again – I would set off at 10 – to enable more time at each and more time to wait if busy.  You do see a lot of the city, v\you are visiting and supporting artisan local businesses, and feasting your eyes as well as your tastebuds.   If you would like to follow this route, I have tried to make a more detailed map online - just follow this link.

Thanks so much to Nerea for her time, friendship and advice; to Eric and his staff at L’Atelier for their time; to Ursula at Lot Roasters for her time and generosity.

Venn Diagrams and Me

I started thinking about Venn diagrams as an illustration for a post to try and capture some of the events and ways that I am able to learn new skills, new relationships etc to help me learn and shape my business.  As I played with them, I realised that they could also illustrate how the business has brought together different aspects of my life - work, education, interests.

There is a lot of work in making chocolate and running a small business and to be honest most of it is repetitive, laborious and more than a little dull!  What keeps me going is learning and experimenting - with flavours (new plants and new ways of processing them), with new chocolates that I meet and grow to know and love, with meeting new people in the foraging and chocolate making worlds, as well as other small businesses who inspire me.  These three worlds are on the whole completely separate and I often wonder if I alone occupy that large overlap in the above Venn diagram!  All three worlds are full of amazing people, all very generous with their knowledge and support and I take as many opportunities as I am able to take part in any to engage with them.  Over the last few months I have been involved in a couple of amazing events that have nurtured me in different ways.  

In May, I joined a wonderful group of foragers in a very beautiful rewooding field in the Lake District (Oak Howe run by the lovely Deborah and Rob of Wild Human),  at the Association of Foragers gathering.  Three days that passed in a relaxed fug of cooking, talking, laughing, eating, cooking some more, laughing some more.  I even roasted cocoa beans in a wood fired pizza oven, and we cracked and peeled them and ground them into a paste in a stone pestle and mortar (but once introduced to a a freshly roasted cocoa bean - most of them just got consumed!)  We even tempered chocolate in the field kitchen and dipped amazing wild goodies in them (apologies - had so much fun I did not even take any photos!).

And in July, my chocolate itch for learning took me (virtually) to Amsterdam and Chocoa.  I have been to Chocoa and it was fantastic to dip into chocolate conversations, meet cocoa growers and chocolate makers from around the world and TASTE amazing chocolates (I wrote a blog post about it here).  During COVID they ran an entirely online conference which was fabulous and during those disconnected days a real joy to spend three days in a virtual world.  This year, it was a hybrid event and although I would have loved to have been there and have warm, real conversations with people - I could not spare time or budget to travel.  However, I utterly loved the opportunity to listen in to presentations, discussions, and this is a really interesting time in the cocoa and chocolate making worlds.  Time for another Venn diagram I think.....

One of the big topics at this year's Chocoa was a new EU regulation coming in very soon, the Regulation on deforestation-free products. Once this is in place, any EU based business importing agricultural commodities (sugar, coffee, cocoa, etc) has to demonstrate that there has been no deforestation in the production of those commodities.  This has thrown the cocoa industry into a frenzy of activity - especially in West Africa, the largest producers of cocoa in the world.  Agroforestry is seem as one of 'the answers' and it was strange to listen to fervent presentations extolling the virtues of combining trees and agriculture, as I have spent so much of my former natural resources career doing exactly this - accompanied with lovely diagrams of layered tree canopies and crops, and cycles of cropping.  I was transported to a former life 40 years ago.  Exciting to hear people enthuse and talk about it, but also depressing that 40 years-on this form of land use is still considered novel and innovative.

The other exciting new movement in the chocolate world is the rapid rise in chocolate making in countries of cocoa origin; this was far more common in the Americas where there is a tradition of eating cocoa and cocoa products, but really not happening very much at all in Africa - despite so much cocoa growing there.  Cocoa farmers learning how to make chocolate from their own crop, adding value to their production - learning how to process, how to market, how to develop a domestic market that may not have existed before.  I have followed with fascination and admiration the Cross Atlantic Chocolate Collective - who are doing just that - sharing knowledge and learning from the Caribbean to Africa.  

It is a little frustrating sometimes in my Highland remoteness that my only engagement with these exciting developments is passive and through the portal of social media and online events.  But I am grateful for this window, and to the extraordinary people that push boundaries and make change.  They influence my own way of doing things - challenge me to think differently, to reflect on my own experience and knowledge and push and expand and explore those overlaps in my Venn diagrams.

By sail to Orkney - a chocolate bar adventure

A few weeks ago a small package of our chocolate bars went on an extraordinary adventure of their very own (am I jealous?  You bet!).  The talented and adventurous writer, Linda Cracknell approached me with a magnificent proposition – she was sailing from Ullapool to Orkney on the Bessie Ellen, and what did I think of the idea of her taking a small cargo of chocolate bars with her and delivering them to a deli in Kirkwall.  Absolutely yes!  And for so many reasons…

 

Bessie Ellen en route to Orkney.  Thanks to Chrys Tremththanmor for the photo

 

 

Linda has been researching her family history, learning a lot about her sea-faring ancestors in the South West.  One of her relatives through her mother’s family, Captain John (Jack) Chichester was keen to develop his business transporting heavy cargo, and he bought the Bessie Ellen in 1906.  She was a young ship then, a 120ft trading ketch built in Plymouth in 1904.  Despite the slow demise of sail over the early 20^th century, they were able to use her 150 ton capacity to transport bulk cargos around UK and Ireland. I wonder if she ever transported cocoa or chocolate?  The age of sail though was on its way out, and in 1947 she was sold to a shipper in Denmark where she transported goods around the Baltic.  Eventually, she was converted to be powered by an engine.   Her current skipper, Nikki Alford, took her on in 2000 and has fully restored her to a beautiful sailing ship.  The cargo hold is now a dining room and living space for guests, who can go on sailing adventures around the UK, Ireland and beyond. Find out more about this beautiful ship here (and maybe book your own adventure!).  Linda’s idea was to take a ‘small cargo’ with her to Orkney and as she had a friend running a deli in Kirkwall – this all linked up very nicely!

Linda taking possession of the cargo in Aberfeldy

Skipper Nikki with the cargo on the Bessie Ellen

 

My own family history has links to the sea as well – my mother’s great grandfather John William Pyman was a Sea Captain in the 19^th century based from the north of England.  Tragically he was lost at sea in June 1879 and as all his wealth went down with that ship, his widow and three children became destitute (and what happened to them is another story in itself!).  He did not own the ship, nor the cargo, but sea captains at the time were allowed to develop a small business on board, selling goods to the crew during the voyage, which would allow them to earn a little more than their pay:  that stock would have been their life savings.  We are not sure where his boat was lost, or where he sailed to and from; my mother says that her father just used to say ‘round the Cape’ – which we assume meant Cape of Good Hope and so maybe on to India.  Whether he ever did the transatlantic route or if he ever transported cocoa – these things we just don’t know.

Freyja at Stromness Books & Prints taking the cargo, and holding for collection by Duncan from Kirkness & Gorie

And I have long been inspired by the transatlantic adventures of the Tres Hombres – bringing chocolate, cocoa, sugar and rum from the Caribbean by sail to the UK and Europe.  The slow and dedicated re-establishing of wind powered cargo transport has been happening quietly over the last decade or so.  Ten years or so ago, Mott Green of Grenada Chocolate Company worked with Tres Hombres to transport chocolate bars made on Grenada to UK and Europe, and this started a small flow of wind-powered transport of chocolate and cocoa to makers in the UK ever since.  Falmouth-based company New Dawn Traders have developed trading routes linking transatlantic trade with the UK, Portugal, France and The Netherlands. A few years back I was excited to see that they were going to be calling in at Oban and Inverness, and hoped to order some of their Caribbean chocolate.  Sadly this trip did not happen in the end – but I have been hopeful ever since that they might replan it.

 

Duncan after picking up the bars from the bookshop in Stromness

So – lots of reasons why I enthusiastically accepted Linda’s offer.  And what did we send?  The cargo was a small box of ten chocolate bars, tasting of Perthshire in early summer – Elderflower flavoured white chocolate and Scots pine plain chocolate.  Linda stressed that weather and tides might mean that they might not make it to Orkney at all – and so, just as in my great great gandfather’s time – she could always sell it to the crew and passengers on the boat itself!

The chocolate bars reach their destination shelf in the fabulous Kirkness & Gorie Deli in Kirkwall

Many, many thanks to all those involved in this amazing daisy chain of delivery!  Linda especially, as well as Nikki and the Bessie Ellen, Freyja and Duncan.  And here's to a future of sustainable transport!

Fruit leathers

No, they don’t sound terribly appetising do they?  We need to come up with a different name – but this old traditional one does describe their appearance so well and gives them a certain character.  But it gives no hint to their intensity and flavour impact – and the surprise is part of the pleasure maybe.

Leathers are a traditional technique for preserving fruits; made well, they will keep fruits as a snack sweetmeat through the winter. They require a lot less sugar than jam or jelly, and pack more flavour.  Made carefully, they don’t need much cooking either and so can keep flavours bright and intense.

We have a ‘duplicated’/mimeograghed copy of fruit preserving leaflet from the 80s in which leathers feature prominently, but it wasn’t until my Wild Wonders course last year that I was re-introduced to their possibility.  I struggle with how to manage fruits in the chocolates – they are wet, acidic and often don’t carry intense enough flavour to make a great impact in the ganache.  Acquiring a dehydrator has helped – and drying some fruits helps manage the moisture without too much boiling or added sugar; raspberries and sea buckthorn work particularly well in this way.

But leathers offer a way to process fruits and weave round chocolate in a different way from ganache filled chocolates, and I began to play around with them last year.  Blaeberries were my first real success;  I went to a great talk by Eva Gunnare, a Swedish forager, as part of the Foraging Fortnight and she gave us blueberry leather and described how simple it was to make.  You can reduce your fruit pulp by simmering and boiling, but better still – reduce through dehydration.  The sugar added can then be more about taste than preservation as you are removing excess water through the dehydrating process not the boiling/simmering/sugar concentration.  This is why freezer jams for rasps and strawberries are so delicious – preservation is managed through freezing and not sugar concentration and moisture reduction through boiling – the flavours are fresher, brighter and more intense.

For wet fruits like blaeberries leather making was the answer – get it right and you have a soft, slightly chewy, intensely flavoured nibble – that is just perfect dipped in the right chocolate.  We made these for the Wild Food Festival last year and they disappeared really quickly.

They are though, a lot of work.  Foraging wild fruits is in itself a labour requiring meditative levels of patience and endurance.  Blaeberries, raspberries, wild strawberries (actually I have never gathered enough of these at any one time to do anything other than eat them!) – but the joy of leathers is that you can make from any fruit or vegetable I imagine.  So we have tried rhubarb, Japanese knotweed, elderberries and sloes.

I cannot really give you a recipe, more like a process.  So much depends on the fruit, the flavour you want, and what equipment you have for dehydrating.  I will describe the process for raspberries and blaeberries, and hope that this serves as enough of a guide to help you get started.

Pick over your fruit to remove any mouldy or badly damaged fruits; remove stalks and leaves.  Wash carefully and drain.  Weigh the fruit, and add a third of that weight in sugar (less if you think the fruit already sweet).  Mix in and leave covered for a few hours – stirring occasionally to help bring out the juice.  By the end of this period, there should be lots of juice, possibly submerging all the fruit.

 

Quickly bring to the boil, just to kill off any bacteria or yeasts; if you don’t mind the seeds, then mush up into a pulp.  Otherwise strain into a bowl; using the back of a metal spoon, force as much of the juice and soft fruit pulp through the sieve, until you have only seeds and skin in the sieve.  If the strained liquid is really thin, you could heat and evaporate off some of the excess water – but be careful about monitoring the taste, as this will change with prolonged cooking.

Prepare trays to go in the dehydrator – maybe line with silicon baking paper, and pour a thin layer of the pulp (say 0.5 to 1cm deep – depending on how thick you would like your leather to be; remember it will shrink considerably through drying so take this into account *).

Dehydrate on a low heat – 115 to 120 F – until tacky enough to handle.  Remove from the paper, peeling it away carefully.  To store, lay the sheet onto fresh paper and then roll up with the paper so that there is sheet of paper between each layer of the leather.  Wrap in a plastic bag, or in a sealed food box.  When you want to use, unroll and cut into strips.

Have fun!

*I tried making a rhubarb leather once that was too thin and it dehydrated to hand-made paper thinness – infact thinking about it, it was hand made paper – edible and beautiful pink green mottled colouring.  OK – a whole new possible craft industry – edible fruit papers!

How to judge a chocolate?

The Academy of Chocolate was established to promote the concept of ‘good chocolate’ – chocolate that is ethical, sustainable, creative and delicious.  They hold an Awards competition every year, and their Bronze, Silver and Gold awards are coveted and adorn very fine chocolates from all over the world.

I saw a call out for judges for this year’s competition, and as I was not entering anything myself, approached the organisers to see if I would be eligible; I am not a member of the Association, I hold no formal qualitifications in Patisserie or chocolate making – but it seems all I needed was a passion for good chocolate, and that along with a reasonable good understanding of working with chocolate – would qualify me.

As I looked forward to the experience, and told people the reason for my trip to London, I was tickled by their amusement of the concept of spending three days judging chocolate (was it going to be a Britains’ got Talent style affair, with Chocolatiers vying for the top award, me and other judges sitting like Simon Cowell pooring derision and scorn on entries?).  I also realised that I had a number of anxieties about putting myself forward for this; do I know enough?  Are my tastes in chocolate too narrow, or at worst at odds with what is ‘popular’?  are my taste buds discerning enough?

I was put at ease very quickly by both AoC organisers and other volunteer judges as soon as I arrived.  It was wonderfully relaxed, and as I chatted with others I found that I was not the only newby, and not the only chocolate maker.  Participants ranged from food journalists, chefs, chocolate makers, interested foodies, a coffee taster.  We were mainly but not all from the UK – but we covered a range of professions and a range of food cultures.

The judging room is large, with three tables situated as far apart from each other as possible!  At each end there are tables with entries waiting to be judged;  small plates of 5 or 6 samples of each entry, nervously waiting their turn to be scrutinised (Ok, they are just chocolates sitting on a plate – but out of their sumptuous packaging they do look vulnerable, exposed and out of place – and hence, a little nervous).  There are glossy brightly coloured and decorated ones, plain ones with no décor, simple, elegant ones – all sorts.  The plain ones seem more anxious, maybe wishing they had a little colour to them – or maybe quietly confident as they felt they would star when it comes to flavour. This isn’t as fanciful as it sounds – the makers are not in the room and so these small confections are their representatives and embody the nerves of their makers, just as much as they embody their creativity and ambition.

In a separate room, busy people organise the entries.  Table tops, trolleys and benches are piled high with all manner of boxes – all the entries having been sent from all over the world – carefully packaged to ensure that they arrive in the best possible state.

I am allocated a table number and join my other four group colleagues.  Introductions, some guiding wisdom from Silvija Davidson of AoC,and we start – presented with three entries to assess.  As we finish those, more are randomly delivered to the table – some enrobed or panned, some white chocolate, some nut categories – constant variety to keep our senses busy.  We set about dissecting and scrutinising people’s hard worked creations; inspecting the product visually first – is it well presented, does it look pleasing?  Then cut through the middle to see how well it is constructed and put together.  Smell, look and then taste.  We are scrutinising people’s livelihoods and it feels deeply uncomfortable; to respect that responsibility, we have to stay true to a critical line; is this well made? Is it balanced? Does it give joy?  Even a chocolate I personally don’t like can give joy – in texture, look and ambition – and it is heartening that we as a group are really respectful of that.  We are not judging on just ‘do I like it or not’.

C, and we start – presented with three

By the end of the first session, I am sugared out; my mouth is complaining.  I stop at a café on my way home thinking a coffee will sort me out, but it just seems to be another assault on my overworked taste buds!  I have read that people crave salad after a session of judging – clean, crisp, cool brightness and I fully get that.  A cool swim after frenzied overindulgence

Judges are volunteers and so some do one or two sessions, others do more; for me, this goes on for two more days. We taste on; each session I find myself with a different group and the table has a slightly different dynamic about it.  I learn to refresh my palette more often with water, plain bread and thin sliced apples.  I gain confidence in putting forward my thoughts and observations to the group.  In my last session I am asked to be the scribe – and have to note and summarise the group’s feedback and thoughts on each entry – this will be the feedback that makers receive – so it needs to be clear and constructive, helpful to the maker to further improve their product – another level of seriousness and respect for the entries.

In 3 days I think I might have tasted about 120 or more chocolates; chocolates from all over the world with flavours ranging from the familiar – hazelnuts, raspberries, to fruits I have never heard of before (longans), through peppers and teas, liqueurs that spill out of their chocolate shells, to algae and fish!  Each one a discrete package that represents its makers creativity, expertise and ambition.  Some with stories attached (the descriptions of the chocolates that entrants are asked to give range from a straightforward overview of the chocolate, to stories of local traditions that lie behind the flavours used).  This all helps in the judging.

I come to the end of my three days – the judging goes on for another couple of days for this part of the competition (the filled chocolates) and will go on for the next month or more with judging of bars.  Those entries that we identified as silver or gold will go to the grand jury for confirmation of award.  Once in a while, we completely disagreed on a chocolate as a table, and when opinion varied wildly, it felt fairer to ask another table to give a second opinion.

I really enjoyed the experience – and home again and making chocolates, it has made me conscious of my own practice and challenged my own approach to chocolate making.  I had volunteered to learn, meet other people within the sector, see what other people are doing – and achieved all that.  I am looking forward to when the awards are announced, knowing that I was involved in a small way.

Thanks so much to AoC for involving me – and to all their hard work in bringing all this together.  And maybe next year, I might enter the competition!

Seeking Finnish wild treasures: berries, boletes, bears and boreal forest

My phone has wierdly remained in Finland time since we came back, and it is helping me hold on to what was such a great trip – so interesting, so enjoyable, so tasty.  We went to Karelia – the eastern-most province of Finland – an area that has endless forests – interspersed with more lakes and ponds than farmland.  The small town of Ilomantsi was our home for a few days, set a-buzz (literally) by the Bear Festival – chain saw sculptures of bears ‘in motion’ (this year’s festival theme) emerged from great spruce logs lining the street when we arrived.  We watched each time we passed as sculptures gradually came into focus – from rough outline, to angular forms and eventually subtle expressions of movement and character.

We did so much in just a few days; we cooked in a Lutheran church – an amazing three course lunch that saw us raiding flowerbeds and nearby woodlands to embellish both table and plate; we forayed into woodlands – giddy with the abundance of the familiar and new that we found there; we visited an award winning distillery and got tipsy and a little loud tasting Arctic Blue and Black Tea gins; we made fresh cheese, walked beautiful farms and milked inky-eyed, long-eye-lashed gentle cows at Cow Camp, guided and led by our equally gentle and knowledgeable hosts; we heard stories of wolf and bear attacks, the realities of living on the edge of the great boreal forest, as well as lessons in plant use, and cooking fungi; we had an interesting morning hearing from two government projects within the Forestry Service, LUKE and Lulume, on how foraging works in Finland – marvelling at the ‘everyman’s right’ to pick, and sell (tax free). 

We drank coffee at woodland fires, were treated to the most generous and extraordinary hospitality throughout – delicious food, generous sharing of knowledge and glimpses into rural lives in Finland. The focus of our visit was the Wild Food Festival in Ilomantsi and this was great fun – we visited on the Saturday and ate all sorts of wild delicacies – tar icecream, wood flour biscuits, wild flavoured juices, bear meat for those that wished it – using mobile phones and google translate to communicate when the international language of Latin plant names failed us.

Too much really to take in, and definitely too much to describe.  However, a few highlights and thoughts for me were:

• how ‘normalised’ wild foods are – starting with blueberry juice on the Finnair flight, in restaurants, blue berries everywhere, in sweets, icecreams, at every meal (both in savoury and sweet dishes), in supermarket products.  Not just blueberries – so many other wild berries as well – crowberries, cloudberries, lingonberries, and lovely to see sea buckthorn a ‘common berry’.  Our gorgeous host Mari (such fun, continuosly ensuring that we had all we needed, translating, guiding) knew plants because she just did – brought up using them, and still using them as food and drink.
• so straightforward – everyman’s right; tax free sales;  Mari mentioned that there is a license system – for which you need to demonstrate that you know key species (wish I learned a little more about this).  At different times and in different groups in Scotland, we have tied ourselves in knots trying to develop codes of practice, should be have licenses to pick commercially – but in Finland they seem to have a simple system based essentially on trust and tradition.  We were spellbound to hear that ordinary people collect 50 million kilos of berries a year (20m kgs are then sold on) and 5-10 million kg of fungi (1.5 million kg sold on); the stats themselves are amazing but also amazed that the stats exist, that wild gathered products are quantified in this way. The importance of wild foods to local domestic, local and national economies is both recognised and supported; the presentations from LUKE and Lulume outlined how this is being developed through widespread research and support to private forest owners.
  
  
  
• to be somewhere so abundant and rich. I am sure not all of Finland is like this – around cities and towns, and where there is more pressure of agriculture on land it might be very different – but from the presentation given to us by the forestry guys well over half of the land is. In and around Ilomantsi – the forest and marsh are abundant.  The forest crown is quite open, allowing light through to the forest floor which supports a wonderland of berries, fungi, and mosses.  Every footstep we took, there were carpets of plants – mainly familiar – ladies mantle, cranesbills, rose bay willowherbs, thistles, nettles, raspberries - so familiar but so surprising to see so much abundance and diversity.  And it proved a perfect nursery ground for the fungi novices of the group – a gentle but varied introduction to our up-coming fungi studies.

For me, to be surrounded and immersed in Boreal forst was a real treat – we have the same tree species in the UK – Scots pine, Norway spruce, birch, aspen and alder – but not so often in these open mixed stands.  A particular delight was the abundance of aspen – one of my favourite trees – rare to come across in Scotland, but tall and elegant in these Finnish woods – and the sound of the breeze through the tremulous canopy still fills my ears.  On the last day we had a wonderful walk through beautiful mixed woodland, coming out by a large pond – skirted with water lilies, bog bean, mosses, cranberries and an abundance of different berries.  We fell to picking and eating, in a frenzy – brought to a climax by the sight of large purple splodges on the path – bear poo!

  

There is so much I realise I did not ask whilst there; for example, what is the concern story there – I think I was blinded by so much going on, that forgot to think about why there is a LEADER project in the area.  Our own project in Scotland is driven by an urge to reconnect people with wild foods and nature, but what is theirs?  from where we stand it seems sorted, but clearly not, as otherwise there would be no project.

Could one of the issues be a narrowing of variety?  Even in this culture, there seems to be a ‘pop’ list – the berries (blue, cran, cloud, crow), mushrooms, (ceps and milk caps – despite the huge abundance of fungi – in the festival it seemed only ceps were available and dried), plants (goutweed, ladies mantle, meadowsweet).   We are much the same – elderflower, berries, chanterelles, ceps (amongst the foodies), brambles, wild garlic.  Our list is shorter, but it is the same issue, of expanding the familiarity with different plants and in different uses. 

Even with so much tradition and widespread knowledge, it was wonderful to see the new energies in play – the gin distiller, the young chefs and many of the stall holders at the festival.